Quickstep: A tango in near misses
by Howlinchickhowl
Summary: A sequel to Slowdance: A waltz in conversation. Deciding to date doesn't automatically make everything ok. Even if it should.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of these characters. More's the pity

A/N: This is a sequel to my first P/R fic Slowdance: A waltz in conversation. Enjoy.

* * *

So his main problem right now? Rachel's like, _never_ free. Ever. She has music or dance or theatre classes pretty much every day of the week, and when she's not at those she's either rehearsing or doing tons of homework or trying to keep up with her myspace schedule. So he got her to say yes to going on a date, he just can't get her to actually _go_ on it. And to be honest, it's pissing him off.

He's about ready to give up on the idea altogether after a week of suggesting days and times and getting shot down (told politely that unfortunately she was unavailable then, but she'd like to do it another time). He's starting to think maybe she's chickening out. But then on Tuesday morning before first period he's shoving some stuff in his locker and she shows up next to him, like, out of _nowhere_, and he'd ask her when the hell she went to ninja school but she's looking up at him kind of shyly but also like she's excited about something, so he decides to save that question for another time.

It's kinda nice as well, her being here. She never normally comes up to him in the hallway, he's always approaching her, except in glee, when sometimes he kinda wishes she'd leave him alone. It's like she thinks that now he has like, feelings for her, or whatever, he's gonna start caring about other stuff, like choral arrangements or choreography or _going_ _to math_? Hell no.

But she's not talking about any of that crap right now, she's just saying hello and asking him how he is this morning, so so far so good. She's looking pretty good as well, for her anyways. He likes it when she wears her hair down like that, kind of curly and all over her shoulders and stuff, kinda makes her face look softer, or something. Whatever, he's not been listening to anything she's saying until he realises he's heard the words "...cancelled...Friday...free...interested?" _Hell yes_ he's interested. He tell her so in like _emphatic_ (offensive apparently) terms, and suddenly he finds himself with a date on Friday night. He doesn't know what they're doing, he kinda missed that bit, but whatever it is, there's totally gonna be making out, and there ain't nothing wrong with that. His day is totally gonna rock now.

* * *

There's no making out. Not even a little bit. They go to the drive-in, and he thinks, _hell yeah_, coz no one goes to the drive-in to actually _watch_ the movie, everybody knows that.

Something he's starting to learn about Rachel Berry, she totally does not play by the accepted rules of the teenage dating code. When he mentions it to her she looks at him like he's gone insane and tells him to watch the movie. So he does. And it doesn't totally blow, he guesses. He wouldn't watch it again or anything, but it's not a musical, and that's an upside. But it's not worth not making out for.

So yeah, when Robert Redford's wandering around the park at the end and it gets all emotional because Jane Fonda forgives his ass for something that Puck doesn't really understand Rachel gets this really happy smile on her face and leans into him some more, kind of snuggling underneath his arm that's draped across the back of the front seat. That's kinda nice.

And she doesn't just _talk_ non-stop like he'd expected her to, which, again, upside. But all that means is that they don't really say all that much to each other. He never really realised how much of their interaction depended on her yapping constantly and him calling her on it, and without that he kinda thinks they don't really have anything to talk about. So it's all just a bit _awkward_ and _stunted_. They watch the movie, they eat their popcorn, he drives her home, and none of it is like he thought it would be. Granted mostly he thought it was gonna be a lot of making out and a little bit of winding her up. But she's not giving him anything to work with, so he's kind of just stuck.

When they pull into her driveway and he kills the engine they sit there for a minute, again not talking. She's looking out the window and biting her lip and he's sure she wants to say something, but she's just _not_, and what's with _that_? Since when does Rachel not just blurt out every single last thing that was on her mind every second that it's on it. He doesn't know what's going on but it's starting to piss him off. In fact, yeah, it's starting to _piss him off._ Screw this.

"What's with you?" Ok, that came out a bit more aggressive than he meant, and she looks kind of scared now, so he feels bad. He makes a conscious effort to soften his face a bit and lays his arm out across the back of the front seat, not quite touching her, but hanging his hand there so that it seems a bit more intimate than just them sat in his truck in their driveway. "I just meant, you don't seem like yourself tonight, and it's kind of messing with my mojo. Are you like, sick, or something?"

She starts smiling and he thinks maybe he's cracked it, except then she's giggling and he starts to think _what the fuck?_ Because he's trying to be all concerned and shit and she's just laughing in his face.

"What the fuck Rachel?"

"I'm sorry" She says, but she says it between giggles and he's not really convinced at all that she is. "I'm sorry, I'm not sick."

"So why have you been acting like you don't have kick-ass vocal cords all night? And why are you still laughing?" He knows that last bit comes out a bit whiny, he knows. But damn it, he's not used to chicks just laughing at him, except Santana, and usually she's not doing it because she thinks he did something funny, mainly when he's done something that pisses her off but she doesn't want him to know. Other people don't just laugh at him. He's a scary guy. Except, apparently, to this 2ft ball of crazy sitting next to him in his truck laughing her fucking ass off at something he doesn't understand.

"Mojo?" She manages to spit out between giggles and then throws her head back in a proper, full on belly laugh. Well _fuck_. He thinks. That's just not cool.

"Fuck off." He tells her before slumping back in his seat and crossing his arms over his chest. There's nothing wrong with mojo. It used to be a totally awesome word before that stupid fake spy movie got hold of it and ruined it. It was still totally awesome when Puck used it, because _he_ was awesome, and if she didn't understand that then she could just fuck right off. He'd find someone that dug his personal brand of _badass_.

"Whatever Rachel, look it's probably past your bedtime or whatever, so why don't you just take your sweet little ass inside and get yourself some beauty sleep."

She's still chuckling to herself as she hops out of the cab, turning to close the door behind her.

"Rachel," He stops her before she starts to leave and she leans her head through the open window to wait for what he has to say. It's a move that's so casual it's entirely unlike anything he imagines she might do that it kind of throws him for a second. "Seriously man, what was with you tonight? It's like you weren't even there or something."

She's studying her hands again. In the history of their ridiculous relationship her studying her hands has usually lead to nothing that he can describe as good, so he's kind of getting a bit worried when she looks back up at him.

"Honestly?" She asks timidly, and he rolls his eyes, because haven't they had this _exact_ conversation before, and who the hell asks people questions that they don't want truthful answers for? She must take his eyeroll as confirmation because she starts sucking a breath in like she does every time she has to say something she doesn't want to.

"I was-" and then _she_ rolls _her_ eyes, which is like, a total fucking revelation and he doesn't even have time to get to grips with it because she keeps on going, "I was trying to be cooler, I guess. Or something."

He looks confused. He _is_ confused. Since when has Rachel Berry been concerned with being cool? Since when has she been concerned with anything other than getting what she wants? He doesn't get it.

"I don't get it."

And there she is, once again, studying her hands. Only this time when she speaks she doesn't look up, so this must be a pretty difficult thing for her to say.

"You said- when you proposed that we go on a proper date the other week you indicated that- well, basically you said that my, tendency to be verbose and slightly highly strung was something that maybe, well, wasn't exactly attractive to you, and was maybe a factor in whether or not you'd end up wanting to be with me in a general sense."

"I said that? I don't remember saying that."

"You said that you wanted to see whether or not you could actually put up with all my crazy when we're not just making out."

"Yeah, that sounds more like me."

"So I suppose what I was trying to do was show you that I can be, what's that thing you say? _Chill_, if I needed to be. That I'm not really difficult to put up with."

She looked so down on herself that he almost laughs. But then he decides that that's probably not a good idea. Thought what he actually does is probably not the best idea either.

"Rachel," he says it firmly, and she looks up at him anxiously, "You're an idiot." He tells her with a smile. She looks offended, but he doesn't really care, because she obviously _is_ an idiot and needs to be told so. She straightens up and starts moves to start walking up the driveway, but he's faster than her and he's out of the truck and round at her side before she's even got halfway. He takes her by the shoulders and walks her backwards until she comes into contact with the cab door.

She's refusing to look at him, which he thinks is pretty childish, so he flicks her on the nose like he used to do to his sister, because if nothing else it always got him a reaction. Didn't fail to do so here either. She looked up at him in outrage and opened her mouth to launch a full scale attack, but he just laid a finger across her lips (_Goddamn_ they were soft) and shushed her a little, which totally pissed her off even more. But she was standing there, and she was quiet, so he'd gotten what he'd wanted. He was starting to get pretty good at that, he thinks.

"You're a complete idiot." He tells her again, for emphasis, but also coz it's kind of funny to watch her fume. "Rachel tonight blew. It really did. And not just because I didn't get any play. It blew because _we_ were supposed to be going on a date, only _you_ weren't there."

He doesn't know how it's happened, but his hands have found their way from her shoulders down her arms to her wrists, and have a slight grasp there, thumbs just kind of grazing her hips as he talks to her. He never realizes it when he's doing it, but he's figuring out that whenever he's around her, he always just has to touch her a little, his body just kind of gravitates toward hers. He wonders if she notices.

"Look, I know I rag on you a lot because you talk all the time and you're basically psychotic. But doesn't the fact that I asked you out anyway tell you something?"

She kinks her eyebrows at him and leans back fully against the truck.

"Apparently it tells me that I'm an idiot."

She's acting mad, but she's kind of grinning underneath it, he can tell by that smirk in her eyes. He like, invented that smirk. So he tweaks her nose again, just for kicks.

"No, Crazyface," Her mouth opens in protest but he cuts her off before she has the time, "It should tell you that I like you. I _like_ you, and your running mouth and your deficient mental state, and all that stuff. You're a pain in my ass most of the time, but I pretty much dig all of it. I thought you got that."

His hands are fully on her hips now, her hands resting on his forearms, and he has no idea when that happened, his body is totally ninja-ing his mind! _Awesome_. So he takes advantage of that and _squeezes_ a little bit, thumbs pushing into her hip-bone. Damn, her body is just, _damn_.

"So all this, tonight, with you trying to be different, kind of defeats the purpose. Coz the point of this, _I_ thought anyways, was to see if this could work. Just you and me, without all the other crap. And if you're not being like, completely yourself, then we're never gonna be able to figure that out are we?" He squeezes again, just to kind of hammer his point home. He's hoping she gets it.

"So, I'm kind of an idiot?" She squints up at him through her lashes and he can't help but laugh and press a kiss to her forehead.

"Yeah, you kind of are. And you wasted like the only free night you've ever had. So if this thing never gets off the ground, I'm blaming you."

She laughs and rests her head back against the truck. "Thank you Noah, that's very reassuring."

"You're welcome babe."

They just stand there for a while, smiling at each other, which, yeah is kind of gay, but she's got a totally hot smile, and he kind of doesn't hate that they're being honestly just _with_ each other for once. But then the porch light flicks on and curtains move in her living room and clearly their time is up. She smiles at him apologetically and moves to go inside.

"So, this never happened ok?"

She looks pretty confused, so he thinks he probably didn't say it exactly like he meant to.

"I mean, this date. Didn't happen. We haven't had our first date yet. That'll come some other time. Cool?"

She gets this kind of quiet smile on her face, that he knows he could get used to if he could make her do it more, and she nods a little before turning and walking back into her house. He just stands there smiling at her house for a bit before he realizes how entirely a _pussy_ kind of thing that is to do and rolls his eyes at himself as he gets into his truck. Doesn't stop him from smiling pretty much the whole way home, or giving him mom a peck on the cheek when he gets there before heading up to bed.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own glee, or any of the characters mentioned within.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, feedback is always appreciated. Hopefully everyone enjoys this chapter too.

* * *

He caught up with her on Wednesday on her way to homeroom, she was clutching several books against her chest and walking ridiculously quickly like she _always _did. Seriously, if she wasn't such a midget he'd find it hard to keep up with her coz she was practically sprinting and it was only 8:40. But him being a total giant compared to her he managed to maintain a semi-speedy stroll and make it look like he wasn't _trying_ to get to class on time or whatever.

"Hey, so what about Friday night?"

Rachel glanced at him quickly, she didn't want to walk into something, but she just wanted a quick look at his face. He was smirking, go figure. But he was also kind of blushing, just a little bit, and he had one hand extended out behind her back. Not touching her or anything, but just kind of there, like he wanted to be touching her, and he was looking down at her with this _hope_ in his eyes. He was really quite beautiful sometimes.

"What about Friday night?"

He rolled his eyes at her, like she was really _that_ clueless, but she giggled at him and he guessed she kind of just wanted to hear him say it. And he figured he owed her that, so he swallowed his sarcasm and just kind of nudged her a bit.

"You know, you and me, and Judy of course." He grinned down at her a little bit and waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Noah Puckerman, I don't know who this Judy person is, or who exactly you think I am, but if you imagine that you're going to get me to engage in some kind of sordid _menage a trois_ before we've even had a proper date then you are seriously-"

"_Alright, alright_." He was laughing at her, and yeah she was cute as all giddy-up with her indignation but she was getting steadily louder and people were starting to look so he decided to cut her off before she ended up causing a scene. "You can relax, babe, Judy's my truck."

She looked up at him from underneath her lashes, the heat from her cheeks slowly fading after her tirade, "You named your truck?"

Her eyebrows raised, not in her usual challenging arch, but in a kind of quiet curiosity that he thought maybe he could get used to. It was like, she was this one person, loud and irritating and really fucking insane, and then once in a while she would forget who she thought she was _supposed_ to be and just _chill_ for a fraction of a second. That's the Rachel he liked, that he thought he could get on board with. That's the chick he kind of just couldn't help grinning at when she looked at him like she thought he was ridiculous for giving an inanimate vehicle a name.

"Yeah, 'course. She's my woman. You'd hate it if I never called you anything but 'human' wouldn't you?"

"I suppose so yes, but it's not really the same." She was smiling that soft smile, like the one from Friday night, like something he'd done had made her happy. He needed more of that smile.

"What's different about it?" He inclined his head slightly closer to hers, he kind of just had to be closer to her, in any way, and he couldn't help the way his hand sort of twitched in her direction, going almost to her hip and then stopping there, in mid-air. They weren't there yet, touching in public was still a bit too far outside of what they were supposed to be, but his body just wouldn't listen to reason when it came to her.

"Well, several things really, but first and foremost I suppose is that I have feelings."

"You saying Judy doesn't have feelings?" He does his best to try and look offended, and he thinks maybe it worked, except he doesn't get the apology hug he was angling for, instead he gets an incredulous laugh and a matter of fact smile, _damn_.

"No Noah, your truck most definitely does not have feelings, and now we're at my homeroom and I don't want to be late, so was there something you wanted to discuss with me before I go inside?"

She's stopped and turned to face him, looking up at him with this smug little look on her face, with these big doe eyes like she has no idea what he's going to ask her, only he knows she knows coz he's pretty much already asked her and _damn_, girl was getting kind of cocky. She was actually just gonna keep making him _say_ stuff all the time, for her own amusement.

Well screw that, if she wanted to play games, she was gonna have to learn a few of the rules first. Rule number one, never try and play someone who's better at it than you. He's having this revelation and all the while she's just gazing up at him, like, _waiting_ for him to pussy up and ask her out for like the _sixtieth_ time, and yeah, he likes her, but he's still a stud, so that shit's just not gonna fly. So he just smiles down at her, his most charming (according to his mom) and sexy (according to like, all females ever) smile and runs a hand down the side of her face.

"Nope." He says, and then raises his hand in a kind of haphazard wave and lopes off to homeroom, leaving her gaping at his back like some kind of fish. No doubt about it, he's still got it.

* * *

Rachel ended up being late for homeroom. Which was really just annoying. She was never late for anything until _he_ became a feature in her life and this was the third class she'd been late for in just under two weeks, all of which were his fault. She was really going to have to talk to him about this because she really did hate to be late.

On top of being late there was Finn, who she caught a glimpse of at the other end of the hallway as Noah walked away, looking right at her. He looked kind of annoyed for a minute, and then he smiled and gave a little wave before heading into his own classroom. That's when she'd remembered, for the first time since Friday, why it was she'd broken up with Noah in the first place.

She thought about it all through homeroom and through first period, about Noah and Finn and her and Quinn and the big whole mess that she'd pretty much forced herself into the middle of. It was clear that she and Noah shared _something_. Chemistry if nothing else, and quite possibly more if the way her heart beat just a little faster when her skin touched his and the way his smile generated an automatic smile from her had anything to say about it. And the fact that she hasn't thought about _Finn_ since Noah picked her up Friday night probably says something about her feelings for him as well.

But then she thinks that _that_ was the original problem. This thing she had with Noah, it was just so _distracting_. In a perfectly lovely way, obviously, she wasn't complaining. But she ought to be. She broke up with him so she could figure everything out, and letting herself get distracted again wasn't going to help her do that. Because her breath still caught in her throat when she saw Finn, and her heart still constricted ever so slightly whenever she noticed he and Quinn together and she couldn't just write that off as nothing simply because Noah was actually interested in her now. That wouldn't be fair to either of them, to any of them.

And now she was sighing again. It was back. The serial sighing syndrome that had seemed to develop when she was around boys. She was sure it couldn't be good for her diaphragm control, all this sudden exhaling she was doing, she was going to have to get a handle on it. On the whole situation really. She would have to talk to Finn, and once she and Noah had gone out on a proper date where she wasn't acting like a stupid little girl instead of the self-assured woman she had trained herself to be, then she would have to sit down with herself and just make a decision and be done with it.

But it was just so much easier, and so much more fun, to let Noah distract her, the way she knew he wanted to.

* * *

When she walked into Glee that afternoon, Quinn was the only person in the choir room. She was sat on a chair in the front row, nibbling on a carrot stick and flipping through her sheet music. She looked up when Rachel came in and smiled a little, then looked back to her music.

"Hello Quinn, how are you today?" Rachel asked as she sat a couple of chairs over, smoothing her skirt over her knee.

"I'm ok, my ankles hurt." Was all Quinn managed to offer in reply, but Rachel wasn't about to complain, a week ago she wouldn't have gotten a reply, a month ago she would have gotten a scornful look and some kind of rude and completely uncalled for name thrown at her. They were slowly building something here, and as long as it meant that eventually she'd be able to walk into the girl's bathroom on the second floor without fearing the new graffiti she would find on the walls, Rachel was happy for it to go as slowly as she'd like.

Noah was the third person to walk in, and she smiled at him as he strolled over to her and slumped down into the seat beside her, tugging on her hair a little bit as he did so.

"Good afternoon Noah, did you have a nice day?" She asked as she swatted his hand away. He shrugged and slumped down further in his seat.

"Was ok I guess." He offered and scrubbed a hand over the back of his head.

"Well I'm glad to hear that. My day was very pleasant. I got an 86 on my French quiz which, while not up to my usual standards, was certainly an acceptable mark. I had an excellent conversation with Artie at lunch about his intention to 'bring back' suspenders, and I haven't been slushied once. All in all it's been a very satisfactory day."

"Cool." Was Noah's response. Which was better than the 'shut up Rachel' she would have gotten a few weeks ago, so once again, she was pleased with their progress. She knew he probably wasn't listening to her, but he was at least pretending to now, and that was positive.

Everyone else was slowly filing in, and when Finn wandered in and made a beeline for Quinn, giving her a kiss and laying a hand over her stomach, Rachel happened to catch a glimpse of Noah's face, and the mixture of anger and jealousy and sadness she saw there ran right through her. But when he looked back at her it was gone, his face a mask of confidence and swagger.

She was just about to ask him what was going on when Mr. Schuester came in and begun rehearsals. She couldn't concentrate at all. She felt like such an idiot. It had never occurred to her, she had never even considered the possibility since he had asked her out, even when she'd been trying to come to terms with her feelings for the two boys in her life, that Noah might still have feelings for Quinn.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the manner in which the words are arranged. And some of that I probably stole from somewhere.

A/N: Ok, this this the penultimate part, I hope everyone enjoys it, it is basically just one really long conversation, so I'm sorry if it's a bit dense. Thank you for your reviews, I'm glad people are liking it. I have most of the last part written already and I promise that everything turns out well.

Slight warning: There's some pretty unpleasant imagery about a third of the way through, just because I was trying to think of the most horrifying thing that I could. I'm sorry if it offends anyone, I would like to stress that it's not something that anyone actually wants to do, it's just an example of something that would be upsetting to Rachel.

If you don't want to read it, then basically skip the paragraph beginning with *SPOILER * "The baby's mine." *END SPOILER*

Enjoy!

* * *

Their second first date went better than the first one. Marginally. Like, _really_ fucking marginally, because it starts with her accusing him of being in love with Quinn, continues with a conversation that he'd rather burn his own balls off with hydrochloric acid than have, and ends with them almost calling the whole thing off before they've even begun. So yeah, really marginally better, in that they actually have stuff to say to each other this time, and they don't _really _end up calling everything off. But even so, it still pretty much blows.

It started out like this.

"Noah, do you still have feelings for Quinn?"

She'd been in his truck for a grand total of twenty seconds; long enough to buckle her seatbelt and ask him how he was, before she dropped that on him. _Holy shit_. That was unexpected. He legit almost crashed right then.

"What?" He asked her, deciding that for the time being it was probably better that he pull over to the side of the road.

"I'm not going to be upset if you do, so you can tell me honestly, it's just that you gave me to believe that you were over whatever feelings you may have had for her and were interested in seeing me exclusively, and I've been responding to you accordingly. However, if my assessment of the situation at hand is not correct then I'm going to have to review certain aspects of our arrangement."

She had turned in her seat to face him, hands placed on the seat in front of her, eyes examining him earnestly, openly, and he had this urge to just tell her. Tell her everything. Tell her about the afternoon Quinn had come to him in his room after Cheerios practice and how she had begged him to come to the 7-11 with her and buy her drinks with his fake i.d. He wanted to tell her about how they'd sat in his truck in the parking lot behind the school and drunk wine coolers and talked about Finn and how much of an idiot he was for thinking that he could just join up with a band of freaks and expect for there to be no consequences.

He wanted to tell her about how, when Quinn climbed into his lap and asked him to make her forget, just for a little while, he hadn't even hesitated before sliding his hands up her back and pressing his mouth to hers and how he crowed inside when he finally got inside her because _fuck,_ she was the president of the _celibacy club_ and if there was a more perfect example of how much of a fucking _stud_ he was he certainly couldn't think of it.

He wanted to tell her that after he'd dropped Quinn home and she'd muttered to him to not tell a soul without even looking at him before slamming the door and running into her house he'd thought about Finn and all the shit they'd been through together and how messed up what he'd just done was and how he'd gone home afterwards and showered for like forty minutes.

He wanted to tell her about the moment when Finn had told him that his girlfriend was pregnant and the seven seconds it had taken him to process that information and figure out that it was his and the weird feeling he'd got when he'd realized that he was gonna have a kid. Like fear and joy mixed in with each other, his stomach dropped and his heart soared and there was this crazy loud buzzing in his ears and he had no idea what Finn had said for the whole rest of the conversation.

And he wanted to tell her how much he had really wanted to be allowed to take care of it. Of Quinn, and their kid. But that she wouldn't let him, no matter what he'd tried.

But he couldn't actually tell her any of that. So what he actually said was, "You're crazy Rachel. I don't have feelings for Quinn." And pulled back out onto the road.

"Liar." Was her next mode of attack. He almost crashed again.

"What the _fuck_ Rachel? Where is this shit coming from anyway?" When he looked over at her in between glances at the road she was studying her hands again.

"When you look at her Noah, there's something there, I don't know what, I can't place it. I just know that it's there, I don't even think you realize that it's happening but your face just _changes_." She looked up at a moment when he happened to glance at her and their eyes met for a second before he turned back to the road.

"Look," He said, swiping a hand across his eye and banging the wheel slightly with his fist as he laid it back down. "It's not what you think it is ok? I don't have feelings for her."

"So what is it?" She asked, confusion filtering into her voice.

"'S'not important." He threw back at her, it was clear that he didn't want to have this conversation, he was trying to discourage her from it by becoming more dismissive, more distant. She didn't like the way his voice grew colder, or the way he had stopped looking at her. But she knew that they _had_ to get this sorted, that _she_ had to get it sorted in her head, in order to move forwards like she thought she wanted them to.

"It _is_ important Noah. Just talk to me."

"Just leave it alone, Rachel. Please."

He looked tired, she thought, tired and scared and really worried about something, and it seemed really important to him that she not pursue this conversation any further. But if he _did_ still have feelings for Quinn, and she maybe still had feelings for Finn, then their relationship was never going to be anything more than it was the first time around; just someone warm to hold on to. And she doesn't want it to be that. She thinks she could really like this boy she's been getting to know, this sweet boy whose smiles make her stomach clench and who makes her skin warm just by being there, and who she thought really might like her too.

"Noah I think you should just take me home." She practically whispered it. She didn't think he'd heard, except that he pulled a U-turn and headed back to her house. They drove in silence, and she thinks maybe she's really pissed him off. When he pulled into her driveway and she clicked the door open and started to descend he stopped her with a hand on her knee, hot and a little sweaty and fingernails digging in a little too sharply.

He took a deep breath, and let it out, practically snorting really, like she imagined a dragon might do. Then he took another, exactly the same. She was about to say something to try and calm him down when he said three words that pretty much left her unable to remember words. Or what words were.

"The baby's mine." He said. His fingers dug deeper into her knee and his eyes squeezed so tightly closed. Like maybe if he couldn't see her, couldn't watch her reaction, then he hadn't really said it. She was silent for a long time, maybe a minute, maybe more, felt like forever however long it was. When he looked at her she looked actually horrified; like instead of telling her that Quinn's baby was his he'd actually described to her in some seriously graphic detail the process of gutting and skinning a baby rabbit in order to use it as some kind of masturbatory tool. Which, yeah, gross, but _way_ worse than what he'd actually said.

"What?" She managed to get out once she'd spent about a hundred years shaking her head and starting to speak and then shaking her head and then raising her hands and putting them down and shaking her head again.

He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a noise he could only really describe as sputtering. If this didn't suck so much he would have found it pretty cute, but seeming as how he pretty much just wanted to die right now, he wasn't really able to focus so much on the good stuff about this situation.

"I mean seriously _what_ did you just say?"

He tried to talk again but this time was cut off by a long line of questions, most of which he was sure he wasn't supposed to answer. He'd been in this situation with her before, he figured the best thing was to just let her wear herself out. Only she didn't get to the point where she wore herself out, where she got to was –

"You have to tell Finn."

"What? No, Rachel, Quinn doesn't want him to know." He locked eyes with hers, begging silently for her to understand, for just once not to let her _thing_ for Finn, or her ridiculous moral compass get the best of her and force a situation that really needed to just stay the fuck the same.

For a moment he thought it had worked. As they looked at each other he practically _felt_ the sympathy in her, for him, for Quinn, for their situation. But then she must have remembered that they were talking about Quinn, and as much as she preached mending bridges and shoving water under them, Quinn Fabray was still the girl who had tortured her and who held the key to the heart of a guy she thought she might love, and he could see her eyes harden and her jaw set.

"I don't really give a damn what Quinn _wants _Noah, you're lying to Finn. To your _best friend_. He deserves to know the truth"

"Oh please," he scoffed at her, throwing himself full force back into his seat, "as if you care that we're lying to Finn. You just know that if he finds out, Q will be old news and you'll be free to go after Finn like you've always wanted."

"That's not fair." Her voice is quiet, and it seems like it's far away, and when he looks at her she's sitting back in her seat with her head down, hands in her lap as if they're the most interesting thing she's ever seen.

"Yeah it is. You want him. You always have. I'm just like, filler, or whatever right? So cool, we're done with whatever this was, go tell loverboy all about how everyone in his life is an asshole apart from you. I'll see you in Glee practice."

He started the engine and put his truck into gear, motioning her with his head to get out. He couldn't look her in the eyes, and his head was really starting to hurt, and he just wanted to get the _fuck_ out of there before he started bawling like a baby over a girl he never really had and a kid he's never gonna. But then there's a hand on his forearm, soft and small, and another on his thigh, and he honestly thinks she's taking advantage of how _physical_ he is and how she knows he thinks she's hot to make him forget that she totally just _lives_ in Finn's ass, but then she's talking and he thinks she was probably just trying to get his attention.

"Noah, I need you to listen to me. This is honestly not about whatever feelings I may have for Finn, I wasn't even thinking about that. I don't really know what my feelings for him are any more but it's gotten past the point where my first thought in every situation is how I can use that situation to my advantage to get Finn to like me."

He thinks it's kind of awesome that she admits that that was ever her first thought, and he also thinks it's kind of awesome that the thumb belonging to the hand on his thigh has started rubbing slowly up and down and he's fairly certain she hasn't noticed.

"But he is your _best friend_. And you had sex with his _girlfriend_ and now she's _pregnant_ and she's letting him think that the baby is _his_. And Noah, he's going to find out. People always do. And what happens when he does? If it's a few years, and they're _raising_ that child together? He already loves that baby, what's gonna happen once she's born and she grows up into a real little person and then one day he finds out she's _yours_? Noah that would _kill_ him. It would literally kill him. Do you want to kill Finn?"

He snorts, because, yeah all that's true, but the part where she asks him if he wants to kill Finn, shit's funny. But that earns him a stern look and the loss of her hands, so he straightens his face and runs a hand over it.

"I don't want us to end whatever it is that this is. I think I could really like you, given half a chance, which, granted, we haven't really had yet. But I honestly think Finn needs to be told, and I don't know how much farther I can pursue _this_ if I know you're lying to him."

He seriously resents the hell out of this conversation right now, and he really wishes he was just at home, in bed, with a beer and a bottle of JD and a series of different brightly colored and hideous tasting shots. But he's got to convince her to not say anything to Finn _or_ Quinn (_Jesus_ he didn't even think about that whole aspect of telling her).

"Look Rachel, you have to just, I can't tell him ok. If I tell him Quinn will _hate_ me, she'll just hate me and as slim as my chances are right now, if I tell him I will _never_ see that kid. I can't have her hate me any more than she already does ok? So I can't tell him. Even if I wanted to, which, wow I really don't want to have that conversation, but even if I wanted to I just _can't_."

He's got his hand on her shoulder and he's looking her straight in the eyes and this just _has_ to work. She can't look him in the eyes and watch him like, _beg_ her to let it go and still tell him that he has to do this thing. And it works. It totally works, because she gives him a small little smile and a nod.

"Ok. I'm going to go inside, it's been kind of an intense night and I think we both could use some sleep. I'll see you at school tomorrow ok?"

"Yeah. Yeah that's probably a good idea." She leans in and kisses him on the cheek, just below his eye, and then gets out of the truck.

"Rach?" He calls her just as she closes the door, she turns to look at him. "Thanks." He says, ducking his head and smiling at her a little. She smiles back, and he thinks for a moment that everything is going to be alright.

"Goodnight Noah." She says and then turns and walks back into the house. He waits until he sees the light go on in her room before he drives off. It's weird, considering how _awful_ that was, but he thinks that it actually went pretty well. It definitely could have gone worse. He falls asleep that night thinking about her and how maybe, one day, they'll get to go on a real date, and he thinks when they do, it'll probably be pretty awesome.

She tells Finn the next day.


	4. Chapter 4

This is the final part, I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks to everyone who has read/reviewed/alerted, it's great to know people appreciate what you're doing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or the characters, or the couple of lines I stole from the actual script

* * *

Finn's fist connecting with his face is the first clue he gets that his convincing skills aren't as awesome as he thinks they are.

It's a sucker punch, and it really fucking hurts, Finn manages to hit him both in the jaw and eye with one punch, which would be impressive if it weren't just because dude's got freakish huge hands. Anyway, he's down, on the floor of the choir room getting pummeled a little bit, and he'd try and fight back except he kinda feels like he deserves it, like it's the release he's been waiting for.

It almost feels good, you know? Like now he's being punished the guilt will go away. Like when you're a kid and you break something and you try and hide it but really you just want to be found out so that you can be told off and move on with your life without this _weight_ on you. There's some small, really childish part of him that thinks that this is gonna be the worst of it, Finn knows and he's getting beat and then after this it will all be alright again. They can all just move past it. He knows that's not gonna happen, but as Finn's fists pound him again and again he's like, _clinging_ to that idea.

At some point he's aware that he stops getting hit, and people are yelling above him. He pretty much just wants to curl up into a ball and just sink into the floor, but he knows that's not a viable option. He stands up , wincing, and touches the back of his hand to his face, no blood, that's something at least, but _fuck_ his eye hurts, and his nose is kind of throbbing a little bit.

"It was obviously Rachel." He hears Kurt blurt out, well _duh_, and she gives some kind of half assed denial and starts to roll his eyes at her except _fucking ouch_, that shit hurts. And Finn's calling him out and Quinn's crying and fuck it, if everyone wants him to be the bad guy he'll _be_ the fucking bad guy and he starts mouthing off about how stupid Finn is to have believed all that hot tub shit in the first place, and Finn's almost on him again except he's being restrained and Puck almost wishes that he wasn't. Maybe if they could just duke this out like men everyone would come out of it alright. But Finn's restrained and he's restrained and suddenly everyone's gone and he's sitting there on the risers of the choir room by himself, waiting until he's not so dizzy anymore so he can get up and go home.

Or find Quinn, shit yeah he should probably do that.

* * *

"I fully understand if you want to beat me up." Rachel tells Quinn as she approaches her outside the principle's office. "If you can just try and avoid my nose." She scrunches her eyes shut and waits for the inevitable blow to land, but it doesn't come, and when she opens her eyes Quinn's got this smile on her face, if it weren't so sad it might be euphoric, and she's kind of laughing.

Rachel takes this as a good sign and sits down next to her.

"I'm not mad at you. You only did what I was too afraid to do. I should have told him." Quinn's slender finger wipes at her eyes with practiced precision, as though she's spent many afternoons cleaning away tears without making her mascara run, she's actually pretty pro at it. She's been sobbing for at least half an hour Rachel's sure, but she still looks beautiful, perfect even.

"I am sorry. I know you probably won't believe that. I did what I thought was best for Finn, but I didn't really think about what it would do to you. I'm kind of an awful person that way."

Quinn chokes out a humorless laugh at that, she's so used to hearing Rachel defend herself and declare herself a martyr, hearing her say in such a matter of fact fashion that she was "kind of awful", it was actually pretty funny.

"Yeah, you are." She says blankly. And then laughs again because even though Rachel said it herself, she got this hurt little look on her face when Quinn agreed, and she wonders how much of everything Rachel says is what she thinks she's supposed to say.

She's about to call her on it, but then she thinks that even _that_, saying something bad about herself even if she doesn't fully believe it, that's probably Rachel _trying_ to be a better person, a better friend. So she lets it go. She thinks it's ridiculous that she's started counting this girl as a friend, and even more ridiculous that she thinks that they're probably going to be better friends now. How has her life turned into this?

"What are you going to do now?" Rachel asks, playing with the hem of her skirt and looking down the hallway, looking for Finn, or Noah, or anyone that Quinn might be able to lean on. When she saw her sitting here alone it kind of hit her, what she'd done. She'd isolated this girl, made it so that she was completely alone. She'd done a lot of things that she had felt bad for before, she thinks this is the first time she understands the meaning of regret.

"I don't know. I'm going to sit here until I don't feel dizzy and then I'm going to go somewhere else. That's pretty much my plan."

Rachel nods and leans her head against the wall. She could just sit here for a while, she thinks, and then Quinn won't have to be so alone for a while. They sit there for about half an hour, and when Quinn gets up to leave she moves to go with her, but the smile on the other girl's lips tells her that she really just wants to get away from everything and she sits back down and waits another half hour, thinking about the mess she's caused.

* * *

Puck couldn't find Quinn after school, and she wasn't answering his phone calls and it wasn't exactly like he could go over to Finn's house and ask for her. So he's moping. He's been sat in his room for the last hour and a half moping. He ignores the doorbell when it goes and the yells of his little sister when she opens the door. He figures whoever it is will just go the fuck away and he can get back to moping.

What he doesn't figure is that Rachel will walk into his room and plonk herself on his bed. _That_ is a total surprise.

"Hi." She says finally when he doesn't respond to her presence in any way. He grunts a response and crosses his arms for emphsasis.

"Shouldn't you be off somewhere tending to Finn's wounds?" He asks as he slides further down his headboard. He doesn't get why she's here, she's got what she wanted, she can just forget all about him now.

"I think Finn can tend to himself." She replies quietly, and he doesn't know what he expects, but something about the way she says it, quiet, but without emotion makes him look at her. She's looking straight at him in that intense _Rachel_ way, where it's not quite staring but she's not really blinking either, he doesn't understand how she does it without making it look manic, and he thinks maybe it's because she's just _focusing_ on him rather than like, staring him down or whatever.

"I'm sorry Noah. It wasn't right for me to tell him."

"Yeah well, s'done now. No point apologizing I guess."

"I'm sorry all the same." She's studying his bedspread now, blue and white checks embossed with gold, she's tracing the patterns with her index finger, following it up and right and over and up again until her finger hits his thigh and she looks at him again.

"I saw him this afternoon, after I talked to Quinn," He starts at that, he didn't know she was going to talk to Quinn, he assumed she had apologized to her as well, but he'd never have imagined her coming out of that alive. "He was in the choir room when I went back to get my book bag."

He really doesn't want to have to hear about her and Finn's magical reunion (can it be a reunion if they were never really together? Whatever, he didn't know what the word was but he damn well didn't want to hear about it).

"Yeah, well," he said, shifting his gaze from her to the tree outside his window, to the clutter on his desk, to the hairs on his big toe, "I guess you guys can finally go for it now, no distractions or whatever. Good luck with that."

She sighs. He's used to that, but it's not the same kind of sigh he usually gets, this one's more matter of fact, less end of the world, and he feels her shifting on his bed. Turning to sit beside him, stretching her legs out alongside his own, crossing them at the ankles and flexing her toes up and down a few times.

"That's what I thought as well." She says, and their heads turn at the same time towards each other so that they're looking directly into each others' eyes and she's fucking _smiling_ at him right now? What the fuck?

"I'm not going to lie and say the thought didn't cross my mind that once he knew, he and Quinn would break up and we might finally have a shot. It crossed my mind a lot really. I'm not saying it's completely why I told him, everything I said last night is still true, but I can't tell you that I was acting completely nobly."

He finds himself smiling, pretty much against her will, because yeah, she's kind of a bitch. But she's like, _honest _ about it with him, which he digs, and the way she just lays everything out kind of tickles him a little, so he kinda can't help it. And she's smiling back, which never sucks, girl has got like a million watt smile or something. Even when it's small like it is now, it's always impossibly bright.

He doesn't expect for her to run her hand down his arm and take his hand in her own, or bring it up to her other hand and study it, like she studies hers every time there's something she doesn't want to say.

"Thing is, when I saw him there, in the choir room so alone and upset, and I thought to myself, this is your chance Rachel, this is your chance to find out if this is real, he looked at me, and I looked at him, and it's like we both just _knew_. It was over with. Whatever we had, it was gone. No animosity, no dramatics, just a smile and a nod and it was over."

She's running her thumb across his knuckles and he's struggling to concentrate coz that feeling is back with him, that feeling where he kind of just has to touch her, so he nudges her foot with his and she turns and smiles at him again.

"I really am sorry Noah." She says, smile quirking upwards slightly on the right side, "I know that you didn't want me to say anything, and I hope that this doesn't cause you too much extra trouble with Quinn. For what it's worth she doesn't seem all that mad at me, so maybe she won't be at you either. I understand if you can't, but I really hope you can forgive me."

She drops their hands back down onto the bed and gives a little squeeze before saying the next bit, looking him right in the eyes. "I kinda like you, you know?" And before he can respond she's up from the bed and heading towards the door.

"Hey Rachel," he calls just as she's got one foot on the other side of the threshold, and she peers back around the door at him, questioningly. "Look, I don't really know what's gonna happen, with Q and the baby and all that junk, but uh-"

He shoots her a grin, full on Puckerman charm, and quirks his eyebrows, "Friday?" He asks. But it's not really a question, because he already knows her answer. She dips her head in a nod and is gone before he knows it. He lays back on his bed, arms behind his head, and he's totally forgotten he was moping.

Yeah, his life is probably gonna be shit for a while, he's got an illegitimate kid on the way with a chick who hates him and no best friend to speak of. But he's got a date Friday night with a girl that makes him warm from his toes upwards and who he is most _definitely _gonna make out with. Like, even if his life is on the line. He is making out with Rachel Friday. Fuck everything else. His day just got a whole lot better.

* * *

Their third first date? Entirely awesome. They go to monster trucks. _Monster trucks!_ And it's fully her idea, apparently Smart-Casual Berry is a full on motor-man and has been taking her since she was a little girl. She's totally into it, squealing with delight and jumping up and down when she sees her favourite vehicles, and going totally crazy over some of the stunts they pull. It's totally hot.

The other thing that's hot? They totally make out. Like, a lot. They go and get ice cream on the way home and eat it in this little park area across from the store and one minute he's all innuendo and offering her licks of his Magnum (hell _yeah_ he bought that shit on purpose) and the next her hands are hot on the back of his head and her tongue is in his mouth and she's practically in his lap in a _public park_ and it's entirely fucking awesome. Girl can kiss.

And when, after about forty minutes of making out in the park he decides he should drop her home before he tries to have sex with her _right there_, she grabs his hand on the way back to the truck and holds onto it all the way back to her house. She kisses him on the cheek and hops out of the cab, practically skipping down the driveway and he chuckles.

But she stops before she goes in the house and gives him a half wave and _that_ smile, and he knows, no joke, in like, his bones, that he could _definitely_ get used to this.


End file.
